Local family become victims of scamming

CALEXICO, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - Calexico police say a local family fell victim to a kidnapping scam.

Officers say a family member received a call that her mother was kidnapped and for her release, they had to deposit a large amount of money.

Calexico police said the kidnapping was later discovered to be a scam.

The call came from Mexico.

Police said these types of scams are starting to become frequent.

“What we want to do is basically get the community to be aware that family scamming is going on again and what they do is these scam artists will actually call the family and ask what is your mother's name… What is your brother's name and they will ask you questions on a specific family member and then they will tell you well we have that person hostage you can’t talk to them… If you don’t give us the money we are going to hurt them," said Cpl. Cynthia Fraker, Calexico Police Department.

Calexico police said unfortunately the family deposited about $6,000 to at least two locations, El Centro and Calexico and lost all of that money.